A 'Wicked' Saturday Night

This past Saturday night was fabulous because not only did I see a great show but....

For every performance of Wicked there is a lottery rush for tickets. 26 front row seats are given away in a lottery and each ticket is just $30!

I was so excited when they called my name. I have wanted to see Wicked for quite a while now and then to get a front row seat for such an amazing price was just the perfect storm of awesome.

The seat and the show did not disappoint. The music was so incredible and being so close you could see how much the performers put in to every song and every bit of dialogue. I could make eye contact with performers and I could see every detail in the costumes.

My favorite was the end of act one when Elphaba sings 'Defying Gravity'. I've heard the song before and I was looking forward to the song in the show. It totally exceeded my expectations - I had goosebumps as the curtains closed for intermission.

The story of Wicked is really clever and the songs move the story forward seamlessly. I would absolutely recommend this show and see it again.

Christmas 2012 Crafts

Every Christmas I always have more crafts planned than I actually complete.

This year I wanted to get everything done in November so I could enjoy December (ha! a pipe dream in a normal year and this year was anything but normal). As it turns out, the week after Thanksgiving I was in North Carolina for a short work trip and then the entire second week of December I was in Utah for work. Both were last minute trips and really made for a very busy first week of December (and a very messy apartment filled with projects in various states, no kitchen counter space, wrapped packages, and shipping boxes both incoming and outgoing).

Based on the success of my 'cake in a jar' over the summer I baked rum cakes in mason jars. I also tried something new and did some canning. I made a savory onion jam, it is a nice sandwich spread and is also tasty on great on grilled cheese. And I made pickles! It is something I've wanted to do for at least a year and it really wasn't too difficult. I want to work on perfecting my pickle recipe and then go crazy pickling this summer. (I forgot to take photos of my cute mason jars, thanks to Pinterest I learned cupcake wrappers fit perfectly underneath a mason jar lid for an easy decorative top.)

For all of my work friends in Utah I pulled out the rein-beer craft from last year. On Black Friday I stopped in at Michael's Crafts and stocked up on fuzzy red noses, pipe cleaners, and google eyes just in case I needed them. I hauled all of that with me to Utah and even my trusty glue gun too. Once there I hit up the local Target for root beer and then spent about an hour one night making a herd of rein beers. They were a big hit and lots of fun for me to hand out to my work buddies. 

 

For my friends with the dragon baby, I finished up a dragon onesie. I had a pretty good head start on the intricate design so the only hard part was picking the thread colors. I wanted it to be fun and bright so I picked colors I don't normally use. I really like the finished dragon with his bright blue eyes and fiery scales.

I had my second Liberty quilt completed pretty early, which is good because a quilt isn't a last minute project (at least for me).  I think it was done by October - I just had to sew the binding and I waited for the weather to cool down because that work is by hand and you have a quilt on you as you sew, not much fun in the middle of summer.

This quilt was put together the same as my quilt, just a different color scheme. I did the same thing with the selvage strips; I had them on the back of the couch during the day and I moved them around until I found a pattern I loved. The backing on this quilt is all Liberty, it is a turquoise background with a brown design that has little hidden cats. The girl that helped me pick it out said some people didn't like the fabric because of the cats but of course I thought it was just perfect.

And the same as my quilt, it is a cat favorite! Cats have very good taste.

I did some 'upcycling' and made some gift boxes out of my empty Birchbox boxes. Birchbox is a monthly subscription for new beauty products; for a small fee you get a box of about 5 beauty product samples. The packaging is really cute and the samples have all been very nice. I pretty much use everything I get each month. The samples come in a really nice and sturdy cardboard box. Of course I don't throw them away (I can be such a hoarder) and for the holidays I used them as gift boxes. I painted the original box either gold or a metallic pearl and then I used old Christmas cards to decorate the top of the box (so many people make photo cards my pile of regulard cards was pretty small). Recycling at it's finest. I hope the people that received the boxes keep them and use them again next year. These were a fun and quick project, always a good thing!

And finally while I was in California I put together a couple of flower arrangements. I found this great vase for sale at a flower shop down the street. I shipped the vase to CA and knew I was going to use it to make and arrangement for MomO's bday. My first plan was to make it a mix of fresh flowers and little cupcakes with a cupcake sitting right on top. But with all of the sweets over the holidays by the time I was ready to pull the arrangement together cupcakes didn't sound very tasty. I found some beautiful roses at Von's and used up the left over greens and fill from the cookie exchange. It turned out great and made a really nice centerpiece for the dining room table.

And with the left over flowers and fill I was able to make and arragement for this cute vase.Thanks for the oasis and extra vase Selma!

I am telling myself I need to get started on the things I didn't finish (or even start) last year so I can have some really nice handmade gifts this coming Christmas. We all know, per usual, I'll wait until the last minute! 

My Favorite Souvenir

I ended up with the best souvenir from our trip to London.

There is a department store in London called Liberty. They have been around forever (like most of the old department stores in London) and they have a signature line of fabrics. I only know of one store where I can buy the fabric here (Purl Soho) and it is crazy expensive. Of course I love all of the Liberty prints and the fabric is a dream to work with when sewing and quilting.

The Liberty store in London is in a fantastic old building with lots of dark wood and grand staircases. There is an entire floor for products made from the Liberty of London fabric and then bolts and bolts and bolts of the fabric. As it turns out the prices were only marginally better compared to Purl but the selection was incredible; I was in Liberty of London fabric heaven. It was almost too much, I just wandered through the aisles trying to decide what to buy and what I could make with the fabric. I settled on three packages of mixed selvage bundles. Each piece of fabric was the standard width but they were varying heights. I knew I was going to make at least two quilts from the bundles and I wanted one to be more turquoise/brown and the other to be blue/purple.

As a side note buying the fabric ended up being a huge hassle. In London they have microchips in their credit cards and everything is on the 'chip and pin' system. This is supposed to help cut down on fraudulent credit card charges. None of our cards had the chips in them - the first problem and the cashier seemed to be the second problem. It took him at least 30 minutes to get the approvals to the charge the card.

Once I had my precious fabric bundles home I opened each one and picked the strips I wanted to use in each quilt. Each quilt really has a mix from all three bundles and I have enough pieces left over to make a very small baby quilt - it's on the to do list with about 10 other fabulous projects!

Below, Roxy is helping me sort out the strips I planned to use in my quilt. This was going to be the first quilt I made for myself and I wanted it to be absolutely perfect. I ended up laying the strips on the back of our couch and during the day I would move them around to see how different combinations worked or didn't work. My quilt starts in blues and then goes to purple and ends up with pink prints.

After the top was sewn I had some fun. I took my quilt top to the Purl Soho store to select the border, backing, and binding fabric. The border makes it larger than a lap quilt - it is the perfect size to wrap up in on a cold day. The staff at Purl is always so helpful and they also have a love of Liberty fabric. They were all just gushing at my quilt top when I pulled it out of my bag. And then I got to tell them the story of how I bought the fabric at the Liberty store in London and how my trip to London was a big surprise, it was great reliving the trip. Pretty much everyone in the store, including customers, came over to look at my quilt top and ask about it. One woman thought it was just one piece of fabric, she was amazed how I pieced all of the strips together. It made me feel really good about my project.

I wanted to use a denim fabric for the binding, but apparently it has issues with the color bleeding when washed and the Purl staff would not let me use that for a quilt made of all Liberty fabric. I ended up with a purple quilter's linen that I just love for the binding.

Luckily for me, Purl had a rare sale and I was able to get Liberty of London fabric for the backing as well. I chose two prints and the back is four offset rectangles.

Again, Roxy was instrumental in helping me figure out how to put the backing together.

She also did product testing to make sure the fabric was acceptable for sleeping and also flattering for her fur.

My finished quilt top - the strips all sewn together and finished off with a wide border. The border is a Liberty floral print with purples and blues, it ties all of the colors together. Quite often Liberty hides images in the print - one of my strips has little scissors in it and the border has little tiny stars.

And finally, the finished quilt. It turned out exactly as I wanted and it makes me smile every time I see it. I love looking at all of the different fabrics as they change from one print to another.

Th finished product has been extensively cat tested and approved. It is lightweight but still warm and the fabric is really soft to the touch. Once it was washed the fabric puckered up from the quilt stitches and it has the perfect worn in feel.

This photo shows all of the different fabulous Liberty prints I used in this quilt.

And finally, Roxy showing off all of the hard work she contributed to this quilt.

Every quilt has a story and every quilt is made with love - this one is no exception. It came out of an amazing surprise trip to London, it is made out of my favorite fabric, and every time I see it makes me happy.

London Calling

So I actually started writing more about our London trip but clearly never finished. I can't believe that was over 6 months ago.

Here is that post that has been waiting to be finished...


With the start of the Olympics I am once again wishing I was back in London.

I completely adored the city and we had a great visit way back in May. It really does seem like forever ago!

I covered our first day of the trip but didn't get much further in the blog, day 2 was even better than day 1. It was Monday morning and first order of business was visiting Tower of London before it was too crowded. We arrived about an hour after it opened and the lines weren't too bad. I think we just happened to be in London at a really good time. The weather was fantastic and it wasn't crowded yet. If we had been there for the actual Jubilee celebration it would have been a completely different visit as June was the rainiest June on record in London.

The Tower of London is a group of buildings, not just one tower as it is named and it is really impressive. (As a side note I have been reading about the Tudors, specifically King Henry VIII, and wow - a lot of bad stuff happened here!)

It's the Tower Bridge in the background. Look at all of the sunshine - just think the next week it was pouring rain. Our timing was perfect.

The Gherkin Building in the background - a perfect mix of old  and new architecture in London.

The Crown Jewels are incredible. They have them in big cases with short moving sidewalks on either side. You can go back and ride the sidewalk as often as you wish, but you have to keep moving as you are viewing the collection.

Yes, we saw him move! But I'm pretty sure he never smiled.

There are seven ravens that live at the Tower. They are believed to protect the Crown and the Tower and there is a superstition this if the ravens fly away the Crown will fall and Britain with it. While I did get a photo of a Tower raven, I did not get a picture of the fox!

 (Did I tell you about the fox already - either way, I'm writing about it now.) We were sitting on a bench on the grounds of the Tower and all of a sudden a fox jumped a hedge and went running down a crowded path. I thought it was part of a show, similar to the people that were walking around in period dress - I was incorrect. A little bit later we walked in to a dark guard tower on the ground floor of the wall that surrounds the Tower. The room had an earthen floor and only natural light from small windows. It was dark and cool and quiet. As I was looking around the circular room I noticed a pair of eyes looking at us from one of the window alcoves - it was the fox! I didn't want to scare him so we very quietly left the room - no photos. As we were leaving another couple was entering, we told them to be careful and pointed out the fox. They stayed in there and in no time the fox came running out of the room and ducked in to another hiding spot. Apparently there are wild foxes that run about the city. We actually saw one more very close to our hotel on a different night (unless the same one was following us....)

The Tower Bridge - no Olympic rings yet (or David Beckham in a boat).

The Mall (pictured below) was decorated for the Diamond Jubilee - flags from the Admiralty Arch (pictured above) all the way down to Buckingham Palace.

Fortnum and Mason (pictured below) is fancy pants department store that has been in business since 1707. Their collection of tea cups and tea strainers and tea was staggering. The building was decorated in honor of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and they had lots of products that matched inside - for your own celebration. I managed to resist their wares - it wasn't easy!

On our second day in London we walked and walked and walked. It is an easy walking town and the weather was great but by the end of the trip my feet were tired!

Foggy London Town - Sunday, May 27th (Day 1)

We landed about 7:30 in the morning London time and even though we were very comfortable on the plane we only had a few hours of sleep.

Luckily we had access to the Virgin Atlantic Arrivals Lounge. Here we were each assigned to a private bathroom with a shower stocked with very nice Cowshed brand products and we enjoyed a proper breakfast.

Once we ate and showered we headed in to the city on the train ready to find our hotel and determined to stay up until at least 9pm so we could reset our internal clocks. About 4pm this proved very difficult as we were both tired of walking and tired of being awake.

We found our hotel and checked in to our room. It was a Holiday Inn, very clean and suited our needs very well. We dropped off our bags and headed out for the day. We walked down Oxford Street through Oxford Circus and then Bond Street, both areas are known for fabulous shopping. We caught a quick glimpse of Picadilly Circus and made our way through The Green Park to Buckingham Palace.

The fountain honoring Queen Victoria was in the process of being transformed for the big Jubilee concert. The entire city seemed to be decked out in Union Jack flags and bunting, it was quite a sight to see all of the decorations.

Buckingham Palace was just as fabulous as I expected it to be - the gates, the guards, the famous balcony, it was all amazing.

I was thinking it must be strange to have people hanging on the gates to your house all day just staring and wondering what life is like inside the palace. Is that something you just get used to or do you just want to be left alone, I imagine some days you don't mind and some days it is really irritating (and if you are the Queen on those days you can head out to Windsor or Balmoral, it is good to be Queen).

We walked a down from Buckingham and had a quick bite to eat at a horribly touristy pub. It was fine but it was more about sitting and getting a drink than looking for something fantastic to eat. After the little break we took the Tube (London's subway) to Kensington Palace. Kensington Palace was the home of Princess Diana and it will be the future home of William and Kate (apparently they are getting a 20 room apartment). The entire Kensington compound is huge and there are other Royals that live on the property. They have just opened some parts of the Palace to visitors, these rooms include living quarters for Queen Victoria.

We didn't take the tour, instead we enjoyed the grounds and the beautiful sunken garden.

Kensington Palace is on the edge of Kensington Gardens, a huge park that is adjacent to Hyde Park.

We were at Kensington Gardens sitting on a bench about 4pm and I think we both could have fallen asleep right there. We rallied and figured out something to do before eating an early dinner and heading to bed.

My research librarian let me know the Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 was at the King's Cross train station. I remembered my friend Bex saying it was really lame but I couldn't remember why and it was just one of those things I had to see for myself anyway. We hopped on the Tube to King's Cross station and looked around for Platform 9 3/4 - it was pretty easy to find. It was surrounded by families of tourists with parents taking photos of their children "pushing" the luggage cart though the wall, just like Harry Potter. Clearly the little set up was a total last minute afterthought, it is one sign and half a grocery cart in an odd part of the mall above the station - it isn't even in the station or near any actual train platforms. I had Michael take my picture and we moved along. I was glad we went to see it but I would have been mad if I had chosen to see this over something else or if had been a real pain to get to that train station.

 

The real gem of this tourist outing was the St. Pancras station. From the outside it was this imposing red brick structure that served as a hospital at one time during its history.

Once you stepped in side the station it was even more impressive. The entire platform area would have once been an outdoor courtyard, but now it is covered by a huge glass ceiling that let in lots of light and was architecturally stunning with the glass and iron beams arching gracefully overhead.

Inside the station the high speed Eurostar trains were loading up travellers headed to Paris or Brussels. The trains travel at a max speed of 186 mph and can get you to Paris in about 2 hours. We seriously considered going to Paris for a day but there was just too much to see in London. It was really tempting and we wrestled with the decision for a couple of days.

The station has a huge set of Olympic rings hanging at the entrance. London is definitely getting ready to welcome the world this summer.

It was a quick walk back to our hotel and dinner from here. We ate just across the street from our hotel at Marquis Cromwell. We didn't realize it, but Sunday night was a quiet night for the pub - every weeknight it was packed with locals grabbing a pint after work. It was Sunday night, the tradition 'roast' night. Michael had the lamb roast and I had the nut roast. I had to try it just to find out what a nut roast was, basically it was similar to a piece of meatloaf but it was made entirely from different nuts ground in to different textures, bound together and then baked as a loaf. It was very tasty and very filling. Both dishes also came with roasted carrots and new potatoes. The new potatoes were roasted and then they had to be fried, they were absolutely delicious but you knew they were not good for you - luckily there were just a few in a serving.

We made it to 9pm, time to get a good night sleep and get ready for day 2 of our London holiday! (I tracked our miles once we were home and we walked 8.5 miles that first day, no wonder my legs were tired on Monday.)

Where in the World - London!

My big surprise trip was a real surprise - until we checked in at the airport I had no clue we were headed to London! I have always wanted to go and because of a great airfare special in honor of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Michael booked the trip of a lifetime.

He really wanted this to be a total surprise so he packed for me;I had no idea what was in my suitcase. I didn't even look to see if he pulled our passports, he really wanted this to be a surprise so I did my part to ensure it was. On the way to the airport the cab had a meter that wasn't working and the driver took a different route to JFK (the cab bit was just lucky - Michael didn't ask him to drive any particular route).

Once we were at the airport he showed me the board that had our flight and asked where I wanted to go - the choices were Las Vegas, Stockholm. Oslo, and London. I really wanted to go to London but I didn't want to pick it as my destination because I didn't want him to feel bad if he didn't pick it (Michael likes a vacation where his choices are do we sit on the beach today or by the pool). I had very incorrectly assumed we were going to Vegas, so that is what I said. His reply, "Let's head East." When we got to the ticket counter he pulled out our boarding passes for London! I was beyond excited and that wasn't even the best part - we were flying Virgin Atlantic Upper Class. What an amazing way to fly, it will be hard to go back to coach.

Michael made sure we arrived at the airport with plenty of time to enjoy the Virgin lounge. It had a full size pool table, open bar, several dining options, a Bumble & Bumble salon, and a spa. Various spa and beauty treatments were complimentary. I opted for a deep conditioning hair treatment (complimentary) and a blow out (which was definitely a reduced price from the regular Bumble & Bumble prices). I was so excited my hair would be sleek and beautiful headed to fabulous London. Michael opted for a massage.

My first drink was an ice tea. Look at how it was served - just fabulous. All ice tea should be served in fancy glass pitchers just like this one and fresh brewed just for me. The small white pitcher had simple sugar syrup in case you wanted your tea sweet.

The bathrooms were of course very nice as well. I loved the tribute to the Statue of Liberty on the door of the ladies room. Inside there were urban planning type drawings of New York City. The photo below shows Central Park's reservoir.

The lounge had lots of different seating options. We had plenty of time to sit and then enjoy a full meal.

I finished our late lunch with a special chef's dessert. It was a sampling of a few different items, just a small bite of each. There was a chocolate mousse, a grapefruit sorbet and a sponge cake topped with raspberries and Poprocks. I haven't had Poprocks in a very long time, the crackle was a really fun touch.

Once on board (we flew a 747 with the upper deck and our section had a bar in back) we found our individual pods. The seats had a footrest (my black bag is sitting on my footrest) and when you were ready to sleep they folded down completely flat. Of course there was an individual entertainment system with countless movies and tv shows. I only ended up watching one show and that was the London destination video.

They even provided us with a 'Sleep Suit' so we could change and be comfortable during the flight. It was basically a set of light weight sweatpants and a long sleeve top. We had dinner at the bar and the moved to our seats. When I was ready, the  flight attendant made my bed and I enjoyed about 3 hours of sleep.

Once we landed in London we took advantage of the Arrivals Lounge. Here we were able to eat a full, made to order breakfast and take a shower. They assigned you a lovely private bathroom with a sink and shower during your visit to the lounge. The showers were stocked with a fabulous local bath products by a company called 'Cowshed'. There were attendants who made sure no one else used your room and they cleaned it once you were done. It made it so much easier to take on our first day in London after a shower.

Michael had really wanted to take me to London during the actual Jubilee celebrations, unfortunately with my work schedule that just wasn't possible. As it turns out, our timing was much better. We had absolutely lovely weather with just one 30 minute rain shower during our entire visit and there were no crowds.

Of course the time flew by way too quickly. We made sure to arrive at the airport early on our departure day to enjoy the Heathrow Virgin Atlantic lounge. Upper Class has its advantages, we had our own customs and TSA line. We were the only people going through at that time and just flew through and straight to the lounge.

The London lounge was just beautiful. It also had a salon and spa with complimentary services, various dining options, a pool table, a media area, a library, and you could go up on the roof to see the planes.

We first sat in the area pictured below. I tried the hanging chair but it was about as easy to get in and out of as it looks - and I am just not graceful. One would think the hanging chair was the most complicated chair but the brown chairs had a really strange center of balance. Yes, as soon as I sat down the entire thing tipped forward and I was on the floor! You really can't take me anywhere - I hadn't even started drinking my Pimm's cocktails yet.

At 3pm they offered a tea service. I didn't have time to enjoy a proper tea during the trip so it was absolutely perfect. The scone was flaky and warm and the sponge cake was delicately flavored with lemon. I also had not tried Pimm's in London, I made up for that in the lounge as well. The Pimm's cocktail was pretty tasty and I think was basically Pimm's, ginger ale, and fruit - sort of English sangria.

The media area was really cool. The chairs had sets of headphones and you could tune the headphones to one of the channels up on the screen.

There were all kinds of great areas to sit in this lounge as well. The library had sort of an ocean beach house vibe and the dining room was sleek and modern. They kept putting out differnent magazines, I am a magazine junkie and ended up with about 6 of them in my bag for the flight home. I opted for a manicure as my complimentary spa service and Michael had another massage.

This is relaxed Michael after his massage - actually I just think he's tired of me taking pictures. 

I completely adored London and I can't wait to go back. It was an incredible trip!